WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Register, the official publication of record for the U.S. Government, on Thursday offered a summary of the long-awaited 2018 Quadrennial Review Report and Order, which largely keeps intact broadcast radio and TV local ownership rules while tightening a broadcast television regulatory policy.
As such, an effective date has been locked in.
With the February 15 publication in the Federal Register of the Order, the rules adopted in the R&O take effect on March 18.
Despite calls for “modernization” from across the broadcast media industry and from the two Republicans on the Commission, the FCC — under a court order to do so — on December 22, 2023 completed its 2018 Quadrennial Order.
It retained the existing media ownership rules and adopted what the Commission calls “minor modifications.”
Specifically, a Local Radio Ownership Rule modification made permanent an interim contour-overlap methodology long used to determine ownership limits in areas outside the boundaries of defined Nielsen Audio Metro markets and in Puerto Rico.
For the Local Television Ownership Rule, the Report and Order updated the methodology for
determining station ranking within a market. For Democrats, this change was made “to better reflect current industry practices.”
More importantly, the Commission’s 3-2 party-line vote expanded the existing prohibition on use of affiliation to circumvent the restriction on acquiring a second top-four ranked station in a market.
